Your first stumbling steps into Rapture aren’t just frightening — though they are, given that you’ve just witnessed a murder and are yet unaware just how effective a killing machine you’ll become — they’re downright mysterious.

As in many games, you arrive in Rapture after some calamity with no understanding of what preceded you. Luggage is strewn throughout the wrecked bathysphere docks, the suitcases’ owners nowhere in sight. Once life existed here, but what happened to the people?

The tale is slowly illuminated through remnants of the city’s former life. Records made by people going about their days begin to turn up — literal reel-to-reel tape recordings left by citizens of Rapture. Like some 1950s Indiana Jones, you find and listen to archaeological bits of the past, piecing together this place from its many voices.

Of course, this method was old hat even by the time we first found ourselves swimming for our lives as BioShock‘s passenger plane sank into the icy depths of the Atlantic. Fans of System Shock 2 (a game I didn’t play until years later) would recognize the worn trappings instantly. Like so many other games since, BioShock was a post-apocalypse coughing up its many death rattles to explain itself. We missed the world and found only its slowly decaying corpse.

Audio logs, those bits of recordings that serve as tidbits of story recorded by multiple (usually long dead) characters, might have seemed novel even as late as 2008. They were the primary means of imparting the story of Rapture in BioShock, and have been much emulated throughout games ever since. But audio logs, as it turns out, are the QTEs of storytelling. They’re a cheap and dirty shortcut games use to masquerade as if they have full, fleshy worlds, allowing developers to get by with portraying only the bones of those worlds to players. And it’s time we demanded more of games that mean to tell stories.

Characters Without Character

The simple, primary trouble with the ubiquity of the audio log is that it serves as a shortcut for games to dodge including actual characters. Every game from BioShock to Dead Space to the recent Alien: Isolation uses logs in this way. You don’t need to have players interact with anyone if you can give the illusion of interaction.

Audio logs, as it turns out, are the QTEs of storytelling.

Take Dead Space as an example. Audio logs serve the game as a dispensary of information, from exposition to tutorial. You learn early from a log that the best means of fighting necromorphs is through dismemberment, as you listen to one Ishimura engineer warn others with what he’s learned through experience.

Then you get audio logs chronicling the efforts of some of the characters to stop the necromorph threat, and their failures, and eventually you get enough information to piece together how the Ishimura wound up an overrun monster-filled haunted house. You hear the story of two doctors, one a religious fanatic and one increasingly worried that the situation is bad and getting worse. You hear their arguments, you get the sense of some conspiratorial discussions with other characters, and ultimately one is a bad guy you watch get killed and the other becomes your Buddy on the Radio Who Gives Instructions.

The point is that you don’t see any scenes in which these two characters interact. They don’t really interact with you, either, except to occasionally monologize. There are no cutscenes with these guys, they only have to be rendered on-screen once or twice, and yet you feel that they’re people who have done things and have story. You get expository background information about them without ever having to actually deal with them.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/enough-with-the-audio-logs-how-collectible-diaries-shortchange-story/feed/6The Top 5 PC Games of the 90shttp://www.gamefront.com/the-top-5-pc-games-of-the-90s/
http://www.gamefront.com/the-top-5-pc-games-of-the-90s/#commentsThu, 07 Aug 2014 18:54:36 +0000Ron Whitakerhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=280973Last week we brought you the Worst Games of the 90s, and this week, we’re going to counterpoint that with...

Last week we brought you the Worst Games of the 90s, and this week, we’re going to counterpoint that with the five best.

Mitchell Saltzman, one of the awesome people behind our YouTube and Twitch channels, brings you his picks of the best PC games of the 90s. There are so many to choose from – can you narrow your list down to five? If you can, tell us where Mitch got it right, and where he got it wrong in the comments below.

Don’t forget to head over to Break.com’s Comic-Con hub and enter the #throwbackthursday giveaway for your shot to win a retro arcade tower, a classic gaming console, and other cool prizes!

That’s how GOG.com is pitching its latest DRM-free promo, the Fall Insomnia sale. Starting this morning with Klei’s pretty terrific indie Don’t Starve for just $5, a total of 101 games will appear sequentially on the GOG.com homepage with discounts of up to free. Yes, free. Mostly you can expect discounts of anywhere from 60% to 80%, but GOG says it will also occasionally throw up a freebie.

With one catch: you’ve got to grab the deals before they’re gone. That’s where the insomnia part comes in. Each of the 101 games will go on sale in limited quantities. For example, Don’t Starve (66% off its regular $15 price) started with 400 copies. As of this posting (10 a.m. Eastern), it’s down to 205 copies. Er, make that 200. Wow, these things are starting to go fast.

Anwho, among those sales will be the aforementioned freebies, which will be available in even smaller quantities and be gobbled up by those of you with the fastest mouse fingers.

Precisely which games will be thrown into the Fall Insomnia sale has not been announced, but GOG.com promises best selling classics and new games alike. They do, however, reveal System Shock 2, Dark Eye, Sacred Gold, and Shelter in the above promo trailer.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/freebies-ridiculous-deals-in-gog-coms-fall-insomnia-sale/feed/1What’s the Scariest Game Ever? Win a $10 Game From GOG.com!http://www.gamefront.com/whats-the-scariest-game-ever-win-a-10-game-from-gog-com/
http://www.gamefront.com/whats-the-scariest-game-ever-win-a-10-game-from-gog-com/#commentsThu, 24 Oct 2013 19:43:26 +0000GameFront Staffhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=248177Tell us your scariest game ever and you could win a code from GoG.com!

We’re just a week out from Halloween, and in honor of scaring the crap out of yourself while gaming in the dark on All Hallow’s Eve, we’re giving away a bunch of codes courtesy of the folks at Good Old Games, each good for any game valued at $9.99.

Want a code for a game on GoG.com? Great — then we’re going to play a little game. We want you to delve into your memories for those most vicious horror moments you’ve ever experienced in front of a monitor or behind a controller. Here’s how to win:

Drop a comment below and tell what you think is the scariest game ever, and why. Don’t worry, lots of us will pick the same games and moments.

http://www.gamefront.com/whats-the-scariest-game-ever-win-a-10-game-from-gog-com/feed/63System Shock 2 Modding Guidehttp://www.gamefront.com/system-shock-2-modding-guide/
http://www.gamefront.com/system-shock-2-modding-guide/#commentsTue, 14 May 2013 14:21:09 +0000Ian Miles Cheonghttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=220911We'll set you up with more mods than you can shake a stick at in System Shock 2.

Steam’s release of System Shock 2 brings a whole new audience to the horrors of space and technology on the isolated Von Braun, humanity’s first faster-than-light starship. But it can be also be difficult to go back to a game released more than a decade ago. What once were groundbreaking and immersive visuals are now blocky models and low resolution textures.

Thankfully, an active mod community has been busy even years after its initial release, continuing to enhance everything from its music to its models even to this day. And Steam’s file structure makes this a painless process, as well. There’s no longer a need for any third party tools or file editing in order to face fear in high definition.

Instead of having to overwrite your existing files, you now only need to embed the mods you would like to install in one of two directories in your System Shock 2 folder. Head on over to your System Shock 2 installation folder, which is usually located in the following directory:

<Steam Installation>/steamapps/common/SS2

and have a look at two folders titled DataPermMods and DataTempMods. These are the two folders in which your files will go.

DataTempMods (DTM) is a folder designed for you to test the mods you download to see if you like them. Mods placed in this folder will overwrite anything you place in DataPermMods (DPM) while you play the game. The system is designed in such a way as to use files placed in DTM as the preferred files you’d like to load. This allows you to test your mods for conflicts with your permanent mods.

Once you’ve figured out what mods you’d like installed, simply place them in the DataPermMods folder. This way, you will have two sets of mods — a permanent set and a temporary set to test things with.

The idea is that if the game crashes after installing a new mod in the DTM folder, you can quickly remove it to get the game working again.

Mods are available in two forms:

Standard .zip files, which you can extract using your system software.

SS2Mod files. It is possible to extract these files as .zip files by opening them as such, or renaming the extension to .zip, if you prefer.

You will find multiple folders in each zip file, such as “Fam,” “Snd,” and “Obj.” Just place the folders in either the DPM or DTM folders and you should be good to go.

This package vastly enhances the models of all the characters in the game with high-resolution versions, including Hybrids, Midwives, Assassins, and Rumblers. It’s understandable why the game’s original characters had such low polycounts, but there’s little reason to play the game in low-res on computer hardware these days. Pick this up and your game will no longer look as old as it is.

This mod replaces the game’s dynamic music in its entirety, using music files from the game’s soundtrack. It comes highly recommended by the game’s community. The original soundtrack was split into small files recorded in a low bitrate. To put it simply, the game’s soundtrack basically sounds like crap without this mod.

Straylight’s ADaoB mod is the most thorough attempt at gameplay adjustment (which is kind of like attitude adjustment, but for gameplay) to fix all of the bugs and broken game mechanics that have remained in System Shock 2 over the years.

As its creators note, the mod ‘fixes and rebalances a huge number of anomalies, discrepancies and bugs, all while staying true to the developer’s intentions.” In other words, it doesn’t fix anything that doesn’t need fixing and only alters parts of the game that are quite clearly broken. Think of it as an unofficial patch.

In addition to obvious bug fixes, the mod also includes “SHEMP,” a high-resolution terrain texture replacement to get rid of all the blurry textures in the original game.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/system-shock-2-modding-guide/feed/3Examining What Makes System Shock 2 So Frighteninghttp://www.gamefront.com/any-encounter-could-be-your-last-in-system-shock-2/
http://www.gamefront.com/any-encounter-could-be-your-last-in-system-shock-2/#commentsMon, 13 May 2013 22:48:21 +0000Phil Hornshawhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=220749With System Shock 2 now available on Steam and GoG, we analyze the horror elements of one of the creepiest FPS titles ever.

HorrorScope is a recurring feature exploring the horror genre in gaming and drawing attention to its elements, its tropes, and its lesser-known but still scary titles.

Before BioShock Infinite‘s adventures through the floating city of Columbia, or BioShock‘s slowly flooding city of Rapture, there was the Von Braun, humanity’s first spacecraft capable of light-speed travel. It’s the setting of System Shock 2, the spiritual predecessor to BioShock, and a first-person shooter that’s arguably heavier on the horror elements than the Shock titles that would follow it.

Much like Rapture, System Shock 2 takes place in the tight confines of a space previously occupied by humans, but now mostly derelict, with its victims twisted into horrifying revenants of their former selves. But unlike the BioShock iterations of the series, System Shock 2 could be considered a great deal more attuned with elements we’re used to seeing in the horror genre. Its emphasis is much less on shooting enemies or using cool powers, and in fact, much of the game leaves players underpowered, wielding melee weapons or half-broken firearms, trapped in the knowledge that the next creature to round a corner might be the one that brings them down.

With System Shock 2 available on Steam this month and having joined the GoG.com catalog only a few months ago, it seems the time has come to revisit the Von Braun to understand what makes System Shock 2 resonate with so many horror fans.

The Derelict

The Von Braun, a huge ship with a large crew, is one of the big stars of System Shock 2, and all the best elements of Rapture echo it. When the player awakens on board the ship, it’s already in disarray, with most of the crew slaughtered. Portions of the ship are destroyed, other bits are guarded by automated defenses and robots, and there’s the ever-present sense that the ship is becoming something … else.

Rapture was an incredibly well-stylized world, full of 1950s imagery and architecture, but haunted by shadows and wanton destruction. The Von Braun is also a lot like that, even though it skews toward the cyberpunk end of the spectrum — like Rapture, it captures a number of tragic moments in its environmental design, suggesting a terrible disaster, and you only just missed being a part of it. Broken bodies and audio logs scattered throughout the ship remind you of the people who lived here, and what fates have befallen them.

Even spookier is the Von Braun itself. It’s a ship that is maze-like and enormous, and navigating it takes careful study of its map a lot of the time. With the overbearing music turned off, it takes on an eerily quiet tone, and you can often hear its strange creatures slinking around distant corners ahead and behind. Each deck has a different function, and therefore a different theme, but it’s not uncommon to come across huge pools of blood and smeared red handprints, or areas where the lights have been destroyed or rooms are flooded with errant water.

The entire ship is a claustrophobic nightmare, with few places to hide and overflowing with dangers, and winding corridors in which it’s easy to lose your way. Much like Rapture, moving carefully and quietly is key, because even the weakest enemies are extremely dangerous. You are utterly alone, except for what you can hear lurking in nearby corridors.

Good Old Games today announced that they are now selling a digital download version of System Shock 2 and Daikatana.

Speaking with RPS, Guillaume Rambourg of GOG.com and Stephen Kick of Night Dive, who secured the rights and worked on the release of System Shock 2, explained how they acquired the rights to the game and what this digital version will include.

Kick explained that System Shock 2′s rights are “still held in a very complicated tangle” between the defunct developer Looking Glass Studios, publisher EA, and Meadowbrook Insurance Group, the entity that acquired the assets of Looking Glass Studios on their closure. Kick said:

“The short version is that negotiations began in October of last year. I pitched the rights-holder with the focus being on the digital distribution of System Shock 2 and–as much to my surprise as anyone’s, possibly–here we are today.”

As for extras that will be included wit the GOG download, we can expect “a fantastic archive of System Shock 2 assets.” Rambourg said:

“With the help of Stephen, we’ve pulled out all of the stops to make this a virtual collector’s edition. In addition to the soundtrack, the GOG.com version of the game will have concept art, maps of the Von Braun, a interview with Ken Levine, the first pitch document, and much more.”

Unofficial patches for System Shock 2 and Thief 2 have been released by modders, offering widescreen support and important bug fixes.

Some of the notable bugs fixed include doors that would float away and guards that would drown in waist-high water — the latter was fixed by setting their breathing height to their heads instead of their stomachs.

Also included is 32-bit color support; “textures can now be automatically promoted to 32-bit, improving quality and effectively eliminating the palette limit.”

You can download the mods on the forum on which they cropped up. The forum is in French, but the download links in the first post are self-evident.